Dynamics
Compress, limit, gate, or expand the amplitude of audio and control signals.
What it does
Dynamics reshapes how loud a signal is allowed to be. It tracks the level of a signal and, once that crosses Threshold, scales it up or down according to Mode: Compressor squeezes loud peaks down, Limiter clamps them to a hard ceiling, Gate silences quiet noise, Expander pushes quiet parts down further. Attack and Release set how fast it reacts to rising and falling level, and Knee softens the transition around the threshold.
It works on audio and on ordinary animated numbers alike. A sample-rate audio signal gets a true per-sample compressor, limiter, gate, or expander. A single jittery Number gets a control-rate smoother that tames a spiky driving value into a tighter range at frame rate.
When to use it
Taming loud peaks in an audio signal without hard-clipping: Compressor.
A hard ceiling nothing can exceed: Limiter.
Silence between phrases instead of low-level hiss or bleed: Gate.
Quiet passages pushed quieter for more contrast: Expander.
Ducking one signal under another, such as music under voice: wire the voice into Sidechain.
A jittery driving value from audio, ML tracking, or physics, smoothed into a bounded range for another parameter.
| Parameter | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
input | OneOf([Number, NumberArray]) | — |
sidechain | OneOf([Number, NumberArray]) | — |
mode | String | "Compressor" |
threshold | Number | -12 |
ratio | Number | 4 |
attack | Number | 10 |
release | Number | 100 |
knee | Number | 6 |
makeup_gain | Number | 0 |
Gotchas
Ratio applies only to Compressor and Expander. It is hidden for Limiter, which is effectively an infinite ratio, and for Gate, which is binary on/off.
Compression removes loudness as a side effect. If the processed signal is too quiet afterwards, raise Makeup Gain to bring the overall level back up. It is not restored automatically.
Sidechain is optional. Left unconnected, level is detected from Input. Wire something into Sidechain when the timing of the effect should be keyed off a different signal from the one being processed.
Switching Mode resets the processor's internal envelope state. Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, Knee, and Makeup Gain update in place, safe to animate or tweak live without a pop.
Worked example
Add a Dynamics node and wire your audio or animated Number into Input.
Leave Mode on Compressor. Lower Threshold until the loudest parts of the signal start engaging the effect.
Raise Ratio for a stronger squeeze; watch Gain Reduction to see how much is being applied.
Shorten Attack if fast transients are punching through, or lengthen it to preserve their punch.
Raise Makeup Gain to restore the loudness lost to compression.
Optional: wire a second signal into Sidechain so the effect is timed off that signal instead of Input, for ducking one sound under another.